Truest Friend
by SmileyBottle
Summary: After Kwamibuster Marinette can't sleep, so she thinks about her family and friends, and she discovers who is her truest friend. Based on a post by Lady-Charinette on Tumblr.


Marinette has many friends and people that care for her in her life, with or without the polka-dotted mask of her Ladybug persona.

But most of them didn't really know her, she thought one night, while she stared out into the sky through the trap door that led into her balcony.

Even though she knew Alya for only a year, she had found in her someone to count on with her problems of heart and school, she could tell her most anything of her civilian life that the bespeckled friend would help her, make her feel better or cheer her on.

But she still didn't know half of what made the petite girl into what she was.

She didn't know about her sleepless nights spent running and jumping around, fighting akumas and cursing Hawkmoth for not having anything better to do in a Tuesday night than to send one Akuma after another and thinking about what the hell were people doing to get akumatized so late at night, dammit.

Nor did she know about the calm nights, where her alter-ego would seat in the highest point of the Eiffel Tower with Chat Noir, sometimes in comfortable silence, leaning on each other, calmed by each others breathing. Other times making jokes and laughing into the sleeping city, shoulders brushing while she laughs at one of the lame jokes the cat boy would tell her. But always caring for the city of light while it didn't live for its name.

Those memories were sweet to her and made her smile up into the darkness of her room.

But her friend only saw her stuttery, clumsy self, sitting in the second row behind her crush. Or the model-obsessed teenager. She didn't understand the dangers of having to fight those villains on a daily basis.

Chat Noir was also one of her closest friends. He was her partner, the guy that even though she didn't know who was behind the mask and by consequence didn't even know his name, she would still put her life in his hands at any moment.

He knew what it was like to have the worst sleeping schedules. He knew what it was like to have to lie to the people he knew, about where he was and what he was doing. He knew what was at stake every time an Akuma would start wreaking havoc in the streets.

But he didn't know her either, she internally sighed. He didn't see the girl that would fangirl over the newest pieces of fashion and then just after a thousand praising words had avalanched out of her mouth, the fashion designer inside her would kick in and she would spot everything she would've done differently, writing everything down, sometimes even making some original designs.

He only saw her through those hero lenses, putting her in a pedestal that she didn't feel she deserved to be put on. Or the ones of a love-struck teen, and that would be even worse, she cringed.

Then there were her parents. They loved her, she knew that, but they saw her as their fragile, baby girl. They trusted her enough to let her take care of the bakery from time to time, and they gave her enough liberty to go out with friends, but they would never sleep in peace if they knew what she did for Paris, what she went through each day to keep them safe.

They certainly would prohibit her from doing it, telling her someone else could take on the job, maybe even curse Master Fu for giving a teenager that much responsibility.

And of course, there was Tikki, the little red and black kwami that changed her life forever that fateful first day back at school. The only living thing that knew about both her sides that she could call a friend.

There was Master Fu, of course, however, she didn't believe she could classify him as a friend, an ally yes or even a mentor, but not a friend.

Tikki was with her 24/7. She knew her struggles as the 'Miraculous Ladybug'. The secrets she had to keep from her family and friends that would sometimes eat her alive. She saw the hidden tears and smiles that would show in their moments alone on the pink room or in a deserted bathroom. Everything that her alter-ego made her keep bottled inside.

But she still didn't know everything.

She knew what was on the surface. What Marinette told her. What she saw happen.

But Marinette was human, and like most humans, she had things she didn't say out loud, didn't want the people around her to see, to discover anything that would make them doubt her or worry about her.

Her innermost thoughts and feelings, sometimes even things she wouldn't even dare to mouth to her reflection in the mirror in fear it would open its mouth to someone else.

Magic existed, anything could happen!

Sometimes those thoughts and feelings died in her mind, buried under the never-ending turmoil of the mind of the young teenager, and be forgotten, maybe to never be seen again.

But there were times when a particular something triggered the thought, they were brought into the light, or should I say, into the paper.

Yes, it must be weird to think it this way, but the one who knows the jet black haired girl the most... is her diary.

The pink, semicircle diary that was kept inside a box of the same shape that had a mechanism to keep everyone, even Tikki, away from it.

With every Dear Diary, the young girl would pour inside the small notebook all she feels and thinks, without any fear of being judged.

Anything and everything had a place inside those pages.

For example, the heartbreak she had felt when Adrien hadn't shown at André's ice cream shop? Or the heartwarming feeling that washed over her later when she had been taken by Chat Noir to see what he had done for Ladybug? All inside.

The confusion the day she met Luka and how the older boy made her, for the first time, doubt her feelings for the blond boy that sat in front of her during class? Marinette blushed at the thought of when she had drawn a compass after finishing writing that tale to her dear friend.

The fear she felt every time one of her peers was akumatized and the desperation to save them. Or when they fixated on her and she couldn't get away to transform were inside too.

The never felt before hate she harboured for Lila Rossi for every lie, every fake smile and all the manipulation were written with such emotion that the next pages were unusable.

The feeling of stupidity that she felt when she 'confessed her love' to Chat Noir right before her father was akumatized.

Excitements and disappointments, fears and hopes, shame and pride, all those things we're things only her diary knew.

Her bluebell eyes admired the stars, she hated having to keep things from the people she loved, but she had an excuse for them, be it to keep them safe or keep the miraculouses safe it was valid. Or it was way too personal to tell anyone, and she figured she was allowed to keep somethings to herself.

But she still hated it.

Another thing she hated was that she was totally overthinking, again, and not going to get any sleep that night.

She glanced to her right, Tikki was asleep on the pillow. Marinette slowly rose from the bed and as quietly as she could she took her diary and a pen and went up into her balcony.

She was glad it wasn't cold outside if it was she would have to go back inside to grab something to keep her warm, and that would have awoken Tikki for sure.

She sat at her chair and looked out into the city, it was beautiful. The small lights of the sleepless citizen blending with the small dots that were the stars.

Slowly she opened her diary, flying through the pages that held who she was until she found a blank page.

_'Dear Diary'_ she started writing, _'I couldn't sleep today, so I decided to write a bit about my day and the Akuma that Chat Noir and I fought._

_'It was Mrs Mandeleieve, and she somehow, Plagg surely, discovered about the kwamis. You know how that usually goes, but today I had to use all of the Miraculous… Master Fu warned me about it, but I did it anyway._

_'My body hurts with fatigue, but not the one you feel after running a marathon. The one that feels like you have a huge problem to solve but you can't and you get tired of trying to solve it and your brain keeps running in overdrive until it's cracked._

_'It still isn't quite right though, but I promise I'll write something better when I can put it into words in my own mind._

_'Oh! Chat Noir nearly found my identity today, that is one of the reasons I was using so many Miraculouses at once. I was able to deviate his attention away from Marinette and I hope he doesn't discover._

_'If he did I would have to give my Miraculous and Tikki away and it may keep me awake at night or give me nightmares, but I wouldn't give the freedom away for anything._

_'But it's strange… what was Plagg doing in my school? Chat said Plagg thought it was a creche but it still doesn't add up… would Chat be a student at my school? Do I know him in his civilian life?'_

Marinette yawned, she knew to tell her diary some of her worries would help her.

_'Well it doesn't matter at the moment, it is after midnight and I still have classes tomorrow._

_'Thank you, my dear Diary, for staying with me at this ungodly hour theorizing._

_'Love,_

_'Marinette.'_

The teenager rose from her chair and went down into her room again. Tikki was still soundly asleep. She quietly put the diary back inside its box and smiled at herself, it really was her truest friend she thought as she was finally able to drift off into a calm and dreamless slumber.

Author:

Hey guys! I know I should be writing my other fic, but I came across this post from Lady-Charinette on Tumblr and it just inspired me to write this.

I wish you liked it if you did tell me in the comments if you'd like a version of Adrien, and if you didn't I apologise for wasting your time.


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